NY Post: Google scrambling after Microsoft Bing launch

It’s the New York Post, so of course the headline is “FEAR GRIPS GOOGLE.” But the meat of this article published Sunday reveals what could be the beginning stages of a Google response to the launch of Bing.

Sources apparently told the Post that Google co-founder Sergey Brin was “so rattled by the launch of Microsoft’s rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service.”

Brin is leading the team himself, the Post reports.

From the Post:

“New search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but Bing seems to be of particular interest to Sergey,” said one insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The move by Brin is unusual, as it is rare these days for the Google founders to have such hands-on involvement in day-to-day operations at the company, the source added.

During the Bing launch two weeks ago, analysts started to wonder whether it was the start of a search-engine war among Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. The war would be slow and arduous, since Google has roughly 70 percent of the market share.

In a seattlepi.com exclusive, search-engine guru Danny Sullivan suggested that Bing poses more of a short-term threat to Yahoo than Google. To compete with Google, he said, you have to become the alternative to Google.

On June 4, one analysis company showed Bing’s market share jumped ahead of Yahoo’s for one day. Look closely at the chart, and you’ll notice Bing took a bite not out of Yahoo’s share, but Google’s.